Mousse and Other Nonesuch Things.
I have a few pet peeves. Ok maybe more than a few, but I won't make you labour through reading all that, so here are just a few:
Dried toothpaste in the sink. A sticky nightmare to clean off and you just know it's been in someone's mouth.
The word flimsy. It sounds too much like my own name. Call me crazy, but I don't like it.
When people mispronounce or misspell words we use everyday like supposebly for supposedly, presentating for presenting and know for no. That's no way to communicate people.
A sink filled with dirty dishes next to an empty dishwasher. No further explanation is necessary.
Soap scum. So getting clean somehow makes the shower dirty. Really? How fair is that?
Bugs. Just get your creepiness out of my house! Nobody likes you!
Fingerprints on my glasses. Call me obsessive compulsive, but I prefer to see out of those things.
When you peel the lid off an open tub of cream cheese and the last person to use it has left the metal seal on it.
That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you experiment with a completely new recipe for the first time and you're sure something horrible is going to go wrong.
The best part is when that bad feeling is replaced by a good feeling that causes you to pump your fists in the air and jump up and down. Yeah, I love me some good feelings.
The whole afternoon I was worried about how the mousse layer would turn out in my Lemon Blackberry Mousse Sponge Cake. I'd never made a mousse layer in a cake before. It would surely be a catastrophe. I nervously opened the fridge dozens of times to check on it and I fretted over it when I gingerly poked the parchment paper with my finger. I was sure that when I peeled back that parchment paper that all heck would break loose and my mousse would come pouring out like some unstoppable force. Then I'd have to cry in a puddle of my own purple failure.
Luckily that was all in my imagination. I mean, look at it! I don't like to brag, but come on really, It's perfect! You know how much I like to make things pretty and I'm proud to say this is one of the prettiest things I've ever created. Pretty and pretty tasty to boot.
Good For What Ails You.
I get the hiccups. Quite frequently. It's an annoyance. It's a curse.
Now let me be clear. We're not talking those aw-isn't-that-cute-she-squeeks-like-a-mouse kind of hiccups. We're talking feels-like-I've-been-kicked-in-the-throat-by-a-workhorse-gasping-for-breath-like-I'm-drowning kind of hiccups. These are grown up hiccups people.
The man to hold the world record for the longest case of hiccups is named Charles Osborne who had the hiccups for a full 69 years. That's right. I googled it. Experts estimate he hiccuped 430 million times in that time period. By my calculations that's approximately 17,300 hiccups per day and 12 hiccups per minute. I don't think I've ever had hiccups for longer than 69 minutes and a mere 10 minutes into it I was already about ready to rip my hair out.
I know all the remedies. Oh, you think you're so smart. You think you have one I've never heard of. You don't. I've swallowed spoonfuls of sugar with no results other than a mild sugar rush. I've rather awkwardly attempted a headstand which only ended in falling in a heap on the floor and bruising my knee. I've drank glass after glass of water upside down and backwards which only seemed to make it worse. I've had people scare the crap out of me repeatedly and the hiccups always return. And so on and so forth...
My problem is I have hiccup days. I hate those days. Most people get hiccups once, they cure them and they don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day. That would be nice. With me I seem to go days without getting the hiccups and then one day I get them several times. The hiccup fairy comes and goes as she pleases all the while driving me batty. It's like a cruel joke. I rejoice in curing one case of hiccups only to have to deal with yet another half and hour later. Even worse, the cure I used on the last case of hiccups doesn't ever seem to work on the next bout.
The only similarity between all those hiccup remedies is distraction. Of course if you drink a glass of water upside down you're going to be more concerned with spilling water all over yourself than the hiccups you're curing with it. If you eat a slice of lemon you're going to be too busy making that attractive puckered sour puss face to worry about your hiccups. If a certain someone throws out their arms and screams at you suddenly in their thundering baritone voice you're going to be trying so hard not to pee yourself you're not even going to remember you had hiccups.
I've heard you get hiccups from worrying about something. That might explain it. I get hiccups once and I spend the rest of the day worrying so much about them returning that they do. It's a catch 22. Curse you hiccups! Why must you plague me?
Now onto something less crazy and more tasty. These White Chocolate Apricot Mousse Lace Cups are the polar opposite of those cursed hiccups. Well sort of. They aren't annoying. They aren't embarrassing. They aren't downright uncalled for.
They are pretty. They are adorable. They are definitely delicious.
Perhaps they are the unsung cure for hiccups. Only time will tell.
Can You Dig It?
I have been inspired lately with all these lovely photos of Cherry Clafoutis floating around on the interwebs. I was originally tempted to try one out myself, but I was in the mood for something a little different. Something rich. Something decadent.
Behold the Cherry Brownie Clafoutis!

Ok, so it's not really a clafoutis by definition, but it is quite awesome in it's own right.
I had envisioned cooling these little personal brownies then turning them upside down to have them pop out effortlessly into these squiggly cubes of chocolate cherry bliss.
That didn't happened.
Instead I pounded on the bottom of one ramekin until the heel of my hand hurt. I then proceeded to turn it right side up, grab my spoon and just dig in. That works too. Plus they do look pretty irresistibly darling in these adorable square ramekins.
Swoon.
There are a few specific types of food that it is considered absolutely criminal to dislike. Corn on the cob, for example. It's in season and it's on sale at the supermarket by the bin-fulls. I casually yet efficiently weave my cart around that bin and the greedy patrons digging through it all the while carelessly tossing husks on the floor. I have all summer to look forward to awkward social situations where I have to politely say no thank you when they pass the plate of corn on the cob my way. I have all summer to look forward to the shocked and hurt faces around the table when I explain I don't like corn on the cob. Professing your hate for corn on the cob is like admitting you eat puppies for breakfast.
And then the question. Oh, the question. But why don't you like corn on the cob, Lindsey? Why does anyone dislike any type of food? Because they don't like the taste! What do they expect me to say? When I was five my family and I were carjacked at gunpoint by a gang of corn on the cob and ever since then I can't even look at the stuff without bursting into tears. That's what I should say. That would catch them off guard. Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.
Then there's lobster. But why don't you like lobster, Lindsey? Oh I'm sorry if my personal choice offends you, but I prefer not to look my dinner in the eye while I viciously crack open it's exoskeleton and eat out it's insides. Seriously? Is it that hard to understand? It's like eating an overgrown bug! Then you add insult to injury and dip the poor thing in garlic butter. You know what I think? I think eating lobster is just an excuse to eat an entire stick of butter. That's all it ever ends up tasting like anyways. Would you like some lobster with your butter? I like my butter on bread, thank you very much.
But then there's things like these Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. I would personally be shocked and offended if you told me you hated them. That's where I draw the line on criminal food aversions. Banana and peanut butter is a match made in heaven. The saltiness of the peanut butter brings out the sweetness of the banana. You bite into one and you just let the flavours combine and compliment in your mouth. Then you swoon and eat another. It's just that simple.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbours.
You know it's true. Don't deny it. Ok, yes there is the odd neighbour here and there that's not so bad. Maybe you make small talk with them across the street or exchange passing comments about the weather. Maybe they made too many peanut butter cookies one afternoon and delivered some extra to you. Maybe they agreed to pick up your mail while you were gone on vacation and even sorted the bills apart from the flyers.
And maybe, just maybe they really suck. I mean rake their leaves onto your lawn kind of suck. Or park in your reserved space kind of suck. Or even keep their irregular garbage piling up in the back alley that no trash collector will ever touch with a ten foot pole kind of suck. Those neighbours are the kind we build fences for.
Really though, is it so hard to dispose of your old broken mattresses at the dump? Is it too much to ask for people not to pour broken pieces of cement directly onto the road where you have no other option than to drive over it hoping all the while that your tires don't pop? Is it so difficult to refrain from revving your tired and obviously sick Mustang engine for all the neighbourhood to hear right before you peel out of your driveway? That's not very neighbourly.
Since when did common courtesy stop being so common? It's so frustrating because I go out of my way not to offend a perfect stranger even going so far as to inconvenience myself. I'm the person at the grocery store that will wait patiently and without complaint while the person ahead of me takes forever to bag their groceries all the while not moving their cart two inches so that I can get through to bag my own. I'm the person grinding her teeth in her backyard while my neighbours laugh and carry on in their yard with their inebriated friends until 6am. I'm the person that would glare through the peephole at my neighbours while they repeatedly slam the outside door that only needs to be pushed and clicked in place.
Some people really need to consider the piece of mind of others more often before they do something that would disrupt just that. It's selfish. It's mean. It's just plain ignorant. Let's all try and be a little more enlightened, shall we?
And on that note here are some Cheddar Biscuits that could mend fences.
Love Muffin: Chocolate Cherry
This is the first post of its kind, one of many to come. I've decided to experiment in the wonderful world of muffins once every month or perhaps every two weeks. I love muffins. Don't you love muffins? It's cute. It's muffiny. It's Love Muffin.
Now with that said I'd like to address a certain someone with whom I am currently quite displeased.
Dear Mother Nature,
What is your problem? For serious.
It's Spring right? Let me check my calendar. Yes, definitely Spring. Actually, nearly Summer. And what do we have to show for it? A measly week of blessedly warm and perfectly sunny weather. It's actually snowed at least three times since the first day of Spring and been mostly crappy and cold otherwise.
Do you find it funny to torture innocent Spring loving people? That's right, Spring is my favourite season or at least it used to be. I'm half expecting the leaves to start turning orange and fall off right before we're condemned to a dark snowy prison again. Is Summer even coming? Will I ever get to swim and suntan and eat popsicles on the back step again without shivering?
I'd better.
Now I understand you're very busy controlling the weather all over the world but do you think it would be too much trouble to pay a little more attention to my corner of Canada? I don't ask for much, just maybe a smidgen more sunshine and a teensy bit less snow. I'll even make a deal with you. If you give me Spring I promise to complain a little bit less next Winter. I know how whiny I can be. That's reasonable right?
I think so.
I expect the weather to be different from here on out otherwise I swear I'll relentlessly pollute the ozone or something. No I'm kidding. I wouldn't do that, but maybe I'd stop using reusable bags and start using those horrible plastic ones when I do my grocery shopping. Remind me again, they take how many eons to decompose? Yeah, you wouldn't like that would you? I don't have to as long as you cooperate. Nobody has to get hurt.
I'm glad we had this little chat. I hope we can continue to be friends.
Sincerely your biggest fan,
Lindsey
Ok, now less crazy and more muffins!



